In his latest critique of awareness, Bill Maher took aim at the concept of “presentism” – or “judging all in the past based on the standards of the present” – comparing it to “a magical moral time machine”.
During the “New Rules” segment of Friday night’s episode of “Real Time”, the host addressed a controversial Essay Published August 17 by the American Historical Society. In it, the organization’s president, James L. Brooks argues that we need to stop judging history through a contemporary lens, because doing so “often disregards the values and customs of the people in their time.” The essay, which named “The 1619 Project” and “The Woman King” as examples of historical inaccuracy, outraged readers and prompted Brooks to add a note apologizing for “the ham-fisted attempt at provocation”. inspired to.
Maher, however, was not one of Brooks’ critics, but rather a supporter of his idea. The comedian said, “Wake up is like a magical moral time machine in which you judge everyone by what you think you would have done in 1066, and you will always win.” Compared to George Washington because you have a gay friend and he didn’t. ,
“But if he were alive today, he would too, and if you were alive, you wouldn’t,” he continued.
The host cited slavery as a prime example of how “the capacity for cruelty is a human thing, not a white thing.”
“Everyone who could afford one had a slave—including people of color,” he said. “The way people talk about slavery nowadays, you’d think it was a uniquely American thing that we invented in 1619. But throughout history slavery has been the rule, not the exception.”
Maher then argued that Presentationism incorporates “race, homosexuality, gender, and colonists” into a “unified theory of awareness”, such that “the New World was a great large diverse dance club, and the Pilgrims were the bridge and tunnel crowds that gathered inside.” came and ruined everything.”
He brought up a Portland public school where the curriculum teaches that “gender is subservient” and the play “I, Joan”, in which the titular character is non-binary.
Although he acknowledged that there is some truth to the adage “history is written by the conquerors,” Maher noted that much of history is “undeniably factual”.
“It’s not in the air to change or remove or put on makeup based on what makes you feel better today,” she said.
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